The NY Times this AM is running an article on the ongoing battle between HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Frankly I'm getting pretty tired of the whole thing.  The video quality is better - noticeably better than DVD but would I not watch a movie because it wasn't available in my format?  No. 

NetFlix subscribers are the big winner in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle by remaining largely agnostic.  I continue to say, don't buy the discs- just rent for now while the market sorts out.

In the DVD War Over High Definition, Most Buyers Are Sitting It Out - New York Times

Reason #1574 why I'm going to skip CES in-person this year:

As of Jan. 1, one of the most common types of rechargeable batteries used in gadgets ranging from laptops to cell phones will be subject to new restrictions on American flights. New rules from the US Department of Transportation will limit the size and number of lithium batteries allowed, as well as laying out other stipulations for safely traveling with them.

Lithium Batteries Face Travel Restrictions - Lifestyle News - Digital Trends

A few friends/family members have reported a rash of JS/snz.a virus messages when surfing this AM.  I'm not sure what is going on, but it looks like the issue just popped up and almost all of these users are running CA anti-virus software judging by the comments on Dynamoo's blog.  If I learn more, I'll post it here.

Update: The Register is commenting on the situation here.  Here's to hoping for a quick response from CA.

Dynamoo's Blog: Js/snz.a - likely false positive in eTrust / Vet Anti-Virus

Unfortunately I live in an area unlikely to get Verizon FiOS fiber-optic ultra broadband TV, internet and voice service, but that doesn't mean I can't pine for the goodies that go with it.  According to this Verizon Site, coming soon is the Verizon hub:

Simplify your life at home and stay connected.
News. Weather. Directory. Maps. Calender. Memo Pad.
And yes, it's also a phone.

Let's hope it works better than Verizon can spell "Calendar" ;)

Verizon - verizon hub

Setting aside some of the complaints that users have had with Vista, Thomas calls out one of my favorite features of Vista as well- file moving and conflict resolution.  To quote Thomas:

One of the things that I hated about XP and Mac OSX as well for that matter is that frequently I'd try to move my photos from my MacBook to my drobo after I uploaded them and I'd get a message reminding me that I already had a file with that name in the folder and would I like to replace the file or not replace it. The problem though was always that I didn't know if it was an actual physical dupe file or a different photograph using the same name.
Well now with Vista when it notifies me of this conflict, it actually shows me thumbnails of the photos in question and then gives me three choices. To replace the photo, not to move it, or to move it and give it a new title.

This is one of my favorite useful features along with Media Center which is now powering two HDTV's in our household via Xbox 360 Extenders.

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Moving Files With Vista is Awesome

After perusing this book, I'm also convinced it's a must-have.  Thanks Kevin, my NetFlix queue will be filling up fast.  (Yep, that's right, I'm back to Netflix thanks to superior customer service and online UX, more on that at a later date).

Having just installed an Nvidia 8800 series video card, I'm off to see what Dx10 can offer. Sadly, this will be my first foray back into PC gaming in quite some time :)

Cool Tool: True Films eBook

Happy Holidays everyone.  Catching up on the news, the venerable Steve Garfield is one of the first to get the new service update on his set-top box- be sure to check out his video here.  The filter HD channels guide took a whopping 53 seconds to show up which is disappointing.  No word on when we will see the update here in Seattle, but at least we have a few new HD channels to work with. 

A tip for those interested in following the latest Seattle Comcast news- this thread on the AV Science Forum is among the best I've seen for news, details about outages and glitches, etc.

Steve Garfield's Off On A Tangent: Daily weblog on pop culture and technology.

Dear Santa...

Detroit Auto Show Preview: 2009 Chevy Corvette ZR-1 Officially Unveiled! (The Torque Report)

A lot of you will be traveling over the holidays and may find yourself in a similar situation; I hope you'll take a moment to say thank you.  It isn't about politics, it's about people.

Kudos to the Seattle Seahawks, The Storm, Trailblazers and others for participating.

The Gratitude Campaign

From Amazon.com Package Tracking:

At least they found it. :)  Here comes my Eye-Fi card in time for Christmas!

This is for sure a trailer and a movie I look forward to seeing.  Batman Begins effectively reinvisioned a cartoony and stale franchise.  Here's to hoping the movie and Heath Ledger as the Joker can live up to the hype.

'Dark Knight' Trailer Shows A Joker Hellbent On Chaos - Movie News Story | MTV Movie News

Every year, I pore over my Christmas music looking to create the ultimate mix for that cocktail get-together with the neighborhood friends, the perfect in-car mix for shopping, the Christmas Eve Classical mellow-out of young children, and the anthem to which tiny feet run down the stairs Christmas morning.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the holidays.

I also use my free time over the holidays to try and put digital media to some unnatural uses around the home.  This year, sharing photos of holidays past with family and friends takes center stage.

Step 1: Assemble your "Best of the Holidays" Picture Collection into a Single Folder
To simplify transfer to my phone/PDA/Xbox/Media Center and call-up, I use the recently released Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize all of my holiday best pictures into a folder at the top. These are pictures I want to share during the party.

This is easy to do and can be done with any one of your favorite photo apps, though I strongly recommend WL Photo Gallery - not because I work at MSFT but because it has some really great features like ability to upload directly to Flickr.

Step 2: Sprinkle in some Holiday Trivia

I've created a set of 15 questions in the below pack and included the master images from the- all you have to do is unzip it, put the pictures in the same folder as your "Best of" collection.  You'll probably want to rename the files so as to mix them in sets with your own photos.  The pictures are from the old Winter Fun Pack I did as a side project so many years ago for XP.

Step 3: Assemble the Ultimate Christmas Mix

This year we went a little upscale with a swank set of songs for the adults and a few favorites.  Pretty much anyone can build a playlist these days.

Here are some of my favorites:

Cocktail Party Swanky Christmas (Most off "Christmas Classics" on Zune)

• Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
• White Christmas - Bing Crosby
• Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Lou Rawls
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let it Snow! - Lena Horne
• (Everybody's Waiting' For) The Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
• Happy Holiday - Peggy Lee
• Sleigh Ride - Ferrane & Teicher
• I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Ella Fitzgerald
• Grown-Up Christmas List - Michael Buble
  

Step 4: Share it on the Big Screen with Xbox 360, PC, Media Center, Digital Picture Frame etc.
There are a number of ways to get your photo playlist onto your PC or picture frame.  I use my Xbox 360 as an extender, and a CompactFlash card inserted into a digital picture frame to share them in two rooms.  Here are a few examples (click images for larger sizes):

Play it on Xbox 360 from your Zune - from the Zune device or home network

Play it from Windows Vista Media Center

Play it on a digital picture frame

Hope you enjoy- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

It would look like this.

I don't always agree with Chris but this time I tend to. With the disclaimer that the announcement is huge - to enthusiasts willing to spend all that $$ to be able to watch and record HD and subscription cable TV on their PC. 

Dell’s CableCARD Re-entry Is Huge In the Grand Scheme - Chris Lanier's Blog

Since yesterday, the Microsoft.com homepage has been promoting a new game for Xbox 360 called, "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action" with a new twist- a mini-game embedded in the ad  itself.  I can recommend this game personally as it's been playtested by our family and friends at recent gatherings.   The game itself takes over the entire top panel of the MS.com homepage interactively in what I believe is a first.

Expect a lot more of these kinds of interactive experiences on the MS.com site and others to come in Silverlight. 

Microsoft Homepage